Rock albums that are actually good

Scars Unseen

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Some other albums worth noting:

The Flower Kings' Flower Power


Possibly a bit more metal than my other choices, but Devin Townsend's... well anything Devin Townsend does is good.


Here's a band most probably never heard of. Bloodrock was a rock band back in the 60s/70s that came out of Fort Worth, TX. I like some of their music and some not so much, but I remember hearing this song playing while I was taking a road trip with my dad when I was a kid:

 

NinjaSniperAssassin

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Nightwish was already mentioned, but they deserve a second mention. A fantastic band with a series of outstanding albums.

Amaranthe is another personal favorite of mine. They aren't particularly deep or thought-provoking, but they're just a hell of a lot of fun to listen to. The Nexus is an overall stronger album than their self-titled debut, but both are awesomely energetic.

In the same class of "shallow but awesome" bands is Lordi. They describe their style of music as "Monster Hard Rock", and I really can't describe them better. How can you not love a band whose songs include lyrics such as "The devil is a loser and he's my *****"? Their best album is probably The Arockalypse.

Next we have the kings of nu-metal, Disturbed. These guys introduced me to metal and I still count them as one of the best examples of the genre. Seriously, David Draiman is easily one of the best lead vocalists in metal today. Their discography is pretty evenly awesome, but my personal favorite album is Asylum.

Another of my favorite heavy bands is Five Finger Death Punch. Strong vocals, sweet guitars, and pounding drums all add up to make an awesome workout band. The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell Volume 1 would have to be the best of their albums.

And finally we have Avenged Sevenfold. Matt Shadows is another stellar lead vocalist with a very distinct sound, and even though their insanely talented original drummer passed away the band has managed to keep putting out strong albums. Hail to the King is probably my favorite album, but City of Evil and Avenged Sevenfold (the self-titled album) contained better "best songs".
 

AnarchistFish

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Kenbo Slice said:
AnarchistFish said:
the only rock album I really need anymore. if you're a fan of the wonder years you should like it
The only Brand New album that sounds remotely like The Wonder Years was their first album.
Angsty rock music for suburban white boys. Close enough!


+1 for underoath
 

El Luck

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NinjaSniperAssassin said:
Gotta agree with those picks

But.

As much as I like Five Finger Death Punch I do have two problems with them, they seem to like the army a bit too much, in a kind of creepy way, and secondly they fucked up a cover of one of my favourite songs of all time, House of the Rising Sun, now I don't tend to think that about covers that much, especially with House of the Rising Sun because it is a cover that has been done time and time again, the Animals, Dolly Parton, Forest Rangers & White Buffalo, but holy hell its just awful they took such a soulful song and just destroyed with with an over-abundance of unnecessary heavy guitar.

Sorry, just had to get my gripe with out.


Oh also as awesome as they are live (which they are, holy shit do they put a good live show) god damn can Avenged Sevenfold make dual guitar solos boring...also he sounds like a vacuum cleaner.


Anywho on topic.

I know that someones already put it down, but moar Hevy Devy!


Devin Townsend - I cant really recommend an album by this guy because frankly he hasn't done anything that I dislike. If I had to recommend his albums, ok. Ziltoid the Omniscient, Ghost and Epicloud. these three albums pretty much sum up this guys range and why I love this guy and think he rules. Also anyone who dances like that = a legend in my books because that's pretty much how I dance on a night out.

Helloween


For this band I'll recommend an album by the three different singers they've had.

Firstly Kai Hansen, simple: Walls of Jericho, main reason that was the only album he sung on... but also its a pretty nice album which had this pretty nice Speed Metal / Thrash vibe which gave it that fuck yeah feeling
Michael Kiske - Keeper of the Seven Keys part 2 - An awesome Power Metal album, the title track (Keeper of the Seven Keys...keep up) but honestly as awesome as that song is the main one for me is a song on there called I Want Out. This is my favourite metal song and it holds such a personal meaning to me.


Just...fucking awesome.
Andi Deris...Rabbit Don't Come Easy, The Dark Ride, The Time of the Oath and Master of the Rings. Those albums sum up Deris in a nut shell, his recent stuff has been ok...but its got too much a metalcore focus which puts me off.
 

nvzboy

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I personally think rock died mid 90's. The current metal scene doesn't attract me that much and a lot of the rock that is coming out isn't really capturing me at all. Except for this little gem I saw yesterday:


As for albums I like: I really enjoyed Pearl Jam's Ten, Nirvana's nevermind, Smashing pumpkins' melancholy and the infinite sadness. A lot of the rock from the early nineties. *sigh* I was born a little too late I guess. :/
 

NinjaSniperAssassin

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El Luck said:
NinjaSniperAssassin said:
Gotta agree with those picks

But.

As much as I like Five Finger Death Punch I do have two problems with them, they seem to like the army a bit too much, in a kind of creepy way, and secondly they fucked up a cover of one of my favourite songs of all time, House of the Rising Sun, now I don't tend to think that about covers that much, especially with House of the Rising Sun because it is a cover that has been done time and time again, the Animals, Dolly Parton, Forest Rangers & White Buffalo, but holy hell its just awful they took such a soulful song and just destroyed with with an over-abundance of unnecessary heavy guitar.
I do agree with your point about the army. It doesn't really bother me too much, but I do wish they branched out into different topics more often (like they did with Coming Down aka. the song I posted). One of the reasons I prefer Disturbed is the range of subjects they sing about. I find it a shame that you didn't like House of the Rising Sun though. I have to admit I had only heard the original once or twice before I heard FFDP's cover, but I thought they did a great job of "metalizing" it. It does have a completely different feel to the original so I can see how someone who loved the original would dislike the cover, and the guitar could have been toned down a bit, but I do love metal covers of non-metal songs and House of the Rising Sun is not too far below Land of Confusion by Disturbed (SUCH an awesome cover) in my mind.

EDIT: Fuck it, I'm posting it. Awesome song is awesome. Eat your heart out Phil Collins, this is what your song was meant to sound like.
 

Kenbo Slice

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NinjaSniperAssassin said:
And finally we have Avenged Sevenfold. Matt Shadows is another stellar lead vocalist with a very distinct sound, and even though their insanely talented original drummer passed away the band has managed to keep putting out strong albums. Hail to the King is probably my favorite album, but City of Evil and Avenged Sevenfold (the self-titled album) contained better "best songs".
Avenged Sevenfold hasn't been good since Waking the Fallen. Before they sold out.


Classic song, classic album. Shame, they had so much potential.
 

NinjaSniperAssassin

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Kenbo Slice said:
I've heard a lot of people say that. I actually didn't really like their first two albums. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand why they're seen as classics, but I HATED the harsh vocals. I've never enjoyed songs whose lyrics I can't, for lack of a better term, hear. Again, I appreciate the quality of Waking the Fallen, I just prefer the newer stuff with just the clean vocals.
 

Kenbo Slice

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NinjaSniperAssassin said:
Kenbo Slice said:
I've heard a lot of people say that. I actually didn't really like their first two albums. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand why they're seen as classics, but I HATED the harsh vocals. I've never enjoyed songs whose lyrics I can't, for lack of a better term, hear. Again, I appreciate the quality of Waking the Fallen, I just prefer the newer stuff with just the clean vocals.
His harsh vox are pretty understandable and his cleans were way better as well. Ever since CoE he sounds like a vacuum cleaner.
 

Nimcha

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I would say Led Zeppelin, but they transcend rock. Pretty much all other music, really.
 

Fox12

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Clever bit of troll bait :p

Anyway, rock is pretty dead right now, but I'll always love the good stuff. Dust in the Wind, Sound of Silnce, ect. I'm a huge fan of Coheed and Cambria and all of their albums.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWq57qYOFuY
 

NinjaSniperAssassin

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Kenbo Slice said:
NinjaSniperAssassin said:
Kenbo Slice said:
I've heard a lot of people say that. I actually didn't really like their first two albums. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand why they're seen as classics, but I HATED the harsh vocals. I've never enjoyed songs whose lyrics I can't, for lack of a better term, hear. Again, I appreciate the quality of Waking the Fallen, I just prefer the newer stuff with just the clean vocals.
His harsh vox are pretty understandable and his cleans were way better as well. Ever since CoE he sounds like a vacuum cleaner.
They're pretty clear compared to, say, Abnormality, but they're still too rough for my taste. I just don't enjoy the sound of screams or death growls. His clean vocals were definitely less whiney back then though, I agree with you there.
 

mhb77

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I like how the OP progressively lost the will to be sarcastic and was just straight up positive at the end.

Here's some stuff I really like. (I also enthusiastically second almost everything the OP listed. (I haven't heard a couple from his list, but I'm gonna check them out ASAP considering the quality of the rest of the list)).

Good luck making it to the bottom.

Les Rallizes Dénudés - '77 Live (1977)
Absolutely brilliant Psychedelic weirdness. If you like Sonic Youth, the weirder aspects of Can and feedback than you will love this.

Glenn Branca - The Ascension (1981)
This guy was a major influence on Sonic Youth and he's pretty much amazing. That's all I have to say about that, check him out.

Sonic Youth - EVOL (1986)
Now that I've mentioned them twice, here's some Sonic Youth. EVOL is my favorite of theirs at the moment, but my favorite Sonic Youth album changes on a regular basis.

Pixies - Doolittle (1989)
Because Debaser. The rest of the album is great too.

Kyuss - Blues for the Red Sun (1992)
Excellent stoner rock

Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West (1997)
I like most of their stuff, but I love this one. It's got a nice unhinged feel to it, great for driving.

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (2005)
Just a generally badass album. The lead singer now stars on Portlandia, which is pretty bizarre to me.

Dinosaur Jr. - Farm (2009)
One of my go to albums when I want to unwind.

Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere else (2014)
This came out at the start of the month, so I don't know if this one is going to stick around like the other have. But so far it's blowing my mind.

Congratulations if you made it all the way down here. Now to start sorting through everyone else's recommendations.
 

Varitel

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Here are some albums that are pretty good I guess.

British rock:
British punk:
American punk:
British new wave (or whatever):
American new wave:
British whatever the fuck this is:
British prog: (WARNING: Not for everyone, though I happen to love this album)

Another great of British new wave was Elvis Costello, whose albums "My Aim is True" and "This Year's Model" are both excellent, though also not on Youtube in their complete forms. Then again, here are links to my favorite track from each (both, coincidentally, were actually singles that only showed up on the American releases of these albums).

 

Something Amyss

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TheRightToArmBears said:
Radkey are just a pretty damned cool punky rock band and the singer sounds a hell of a lot like Glen Danzig, which can only be a good thing.
I need to go take a listen to these guys some more. I liked their sound, but that song specifically bored me.
lacktheknack said:
I can't even tell if these are lifted straight from Pitchfork.
They praised disco without using the word "ironically." Definitely not a Pitchfork lift.

Hell, they praised something more than 30 people have heard of.

Jazoni89 said:
But one could argue, pass the early 90's Grunge/Shoegaze era, everything was done to death, and there was nowhere else for Rock to actually go. Rock has pretty much hit it's creative celling already, thus since the late 90's, it's been on life support, with a few hard jumps in the monitor when something decent comes along, and little else.
Oddly enough, I'm yet to hit a shortage on rock within the last few years.

NinjaSniperAssassin said:
Amaranthe
The hell did I just listen to?
 

Jazoni89

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Zachary Amaranth said:
TheRightToArmBears said:
Radkey are just a pretty damned cool punky rock band and the singer sounds a hell of a lot like Glen Danzig, which can only be a good thing.
I need to go take a listen to these guys some more. I liked their sound, but that song specifically bored me.
lacktheknack said:
I can't even tell if these are lifted straight from Pitchfork.
They praised disco without using the word "ironically." Definitely not a Pitchfork lift.

Hell, they praised something more than 30 people have heard of.

Jazoni89 said:
But one could argue, pass the early 90's Grunge/Shoegaze era, everything was done to death, and there was nowhere else for Rock to actually go. Rock has pretty much hit it's creative celling already, thus since the late 90's, it's been on life support, with a few hard jumps in the monitor when something decent comes along, and little else.
Oddly enough, I'm yet to hit a shortage on rock within the last few years.

NinjaSniperAssassin said:
Amaranthe
The hell did I just listen to?
Well, my tastes are very old school as you can probably tell. So, what I'm really looking for personally is old genre's that have been discarded and faded out in time, brought back with modern production, and modern elements.

That's why I like new bands like The Horrors, because they brought back old-school genres, that haven't seen much activity in the past few decades, and gave them a modern shine.

Now, there just needs to be a proper British prog revival...there has been one for psychedelia in the 80's, and 90's, why not prog?

nvzboy said:
I personally think rock died mid 90's. The current metal scene doesn't attract me that much and a lot of the rock that is coming out isn't really capturing me at all. Except for this little gem I saw yesterday:


As for albums I like: I really enjoyed Pearl Jam's Ten, Nirvana's nevermind, Smashing pumpkins' melancholy and the infinite sadness. A lot of the rock from the early nineties. *sigh* I was born a little too late I guess. :/
I think that too...

The Curse of the Post-Grunge Nightmare, and Oasis and Blur's Uncool Britannia popularity, is what contributed to the death of many underground Rock scenes in the mid-90's.

Funny is that even the mainstream is slowly starting to realise that.
 

Nigh Invulnerable

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Wow. I'm not even going to try and post anything, as I'm pretty sure the OP is simply trying to provoke peoples' indignant reactions. Rock music is such a broad term that there's not really a way for us to discuss it when there's not an agreed upon definition. Additionally, the OP makes the statement, "We all know that rock is the worst genre of music ever, that's understood. It's juvenile, farcical, inane and has been stagnating steadily for a good forty years. It's starting to smell up the landscape of pop music. " as if their opinion is a fact....I'll just ignore them based on that.
 

Isra

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As far as whole albums go, I've always loved these from start to finish:

Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

John Cale - Fear

Rodriguez - Cold Fact

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream

Psychedelic Furs - All of this and Nothing

Faith No More - Angel Dust / Album of the Year (FNM goes outside of what I usually like, but for some reason I think they're fucking fantastic, they just make sounds that nobody else does, plus Mike Patton's a proper loony)

Varitel said:
^ plus almost everything that this guy said.